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Monday, 9 April 2012

Huntington Castle - The Wailing Wife and the Phantom Bishop

Huntington Castle
stands in Clonegal, County Carlow,
Ireland. During
his conquest of Ireland Cromwell captured the castle in 1650.

Back in the 13th century there had
been a Franciscan monastery on the site. The Jacobean castle built in 1625 by
Sir Laurence Esmonde replaced an earlier stronghold on the site of the
monastery.

Huntington Castle - 2008

Huntington is a site that abounds with ghosts.
The original monks planted a yew tree walk which survives to this day. It is
there that you might just come across their ghostly forms.

The marriage of the Protestant Sir Laurence and
his Catholic wife, Ailish had its problems. It’s said that one night Ailish
took her baby son and stole away to her Connaught
family. Sir Laurence promptly took a new wife. Ailish’s wraithlike spirit
sometimes stands in the garden combing her hair and wailing in anguish at the
unfairness of it all.

The tale is also told of the ghosts of Barbara
St Lege and her maidservant, Honor Byrne. They wander the corridors, keys
jangling and Honor polishing door handles with her hair.

Should you hear a knock on the castle door it
may turn out to be a spectral soldier from Cromwell’s time. Sent to gather
information from the enemy his comrades did not recognise him when he returned,
still in disguise. His ghostly face may be seen at the grille through which he
was shot.

The Bishop of Limerick died at the castle in
1770. Occupants of the Four Poster Room in the bedroom wing have claimed to see
his ghost standing at the foot of their bed. From time to time his friendly
face is said to replace that of a Spanish flower girl in the portrait by
Murillo above the fireplace.

At ground level stone steps lead down to the
space which in 1640 Cromwell’s men used as a dungeon. In modern times (1976)
Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, his wife and sister converted the cellars into the
head-quarters of the Fellowship of Isis which now has a worldwide membership.